Op-Ed: IMF receives $456 billion for crisis fund

The International Monetary Fund has received pledges totalling $456 billion to add to its crisis fund. A total of 37 IMF countries will contribute to the fund which is only to be tapped into once existing resources are gone.

The IMF's Christine Lagarde joined world leaders at the G20 summit in Mexico to extort more pledges for the crisis fund. Whilst the U.S. and Canada declined to contribute despite some pressure from Angela Merkel, some cash-strapped European nations that are dependent on bailouts made hefty pledges.

According to the Telegraph Spain, which is negotiating a bail out loan from the EU to prop up its ailing banks, pledged $19.6bn, whilst euro challenged Italy pledged $31bn. Perhaps they expect to receive preferential interest rates from the European Central Bank when they borrow the billions needed to honour their pledges.

Cash for voting rights is the name of the game and resulted in some less than heavy-weight economies pledging monies towards the fund. Pitching in amongst the big names were tiny Cyprus, itself on the brink of asking for an EU bailout, with $600m, Malta with $300m and Luxembourg with an impressive $2.7bn.

Of the oil rich Gulf countries only Saudi Arabia contributed, pledging $15bn to the pot. The largest contributors were Japan $60bn, Germany $54.7bn and China $43bn.

Alarabiya reported Christine Lagarde praised "this collective effort, demonstrating the broad commitment of the membership to ensure the IMF has access to adequate resources to carry out its mandate in the interests of global financial stability. Countries large and small have rallied to our call for action, and more may join. I salute them and their commitment to multilateralism."

No doubt the French IMF leader is delighted the fund will run over with enough cash to ensure no bounced checks when it comes to her own $467,940 tax free salary.

Bloomberg reported a spokesperson for Oxfam, referring to Belgium's $13.2bn contribution, said “It’s outrageous that a country the size of Belgium has more voting weight at the IMF than South Africa or Argentina.”

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com